a. Disease
i. Malaria, Typhoid, and Dysentery
ii. Average life expectancy decreased by 10 years
iii. ½ of the people born in Virginia and Maryland didn’t live to 20
iv. ½ of those didn’t make it to the age of 50
b. Immigrants
i. Most immigrants were single males in their late teens and early twenties that were indentured servants
ii. Most perished soon after arrival
iii. In 1650, Men outnumbered women 6 to 1
iv. Eventually acquired immunities to the diseases
v. Virginia was the number one population, and Maryland was number three in the 18th century
c. Tobacco
i. Intense tobacco cultivation quickly exhausted soil
ii. In the 1630’s, the Chesapeake colonies exported 40 million pounds a year
iii. Indentured servants become the work force that cultivates tobbaco
iv. Indentured servants might get punished by longer terms of servitude
d. Bacon’s Rebellion
i. In 1676, mostly rebel frontiersman under the leadership of Nathaniel Bacon revolted
ii. Disliked Virginia’s Governor William Berkley’s policies towards the Indians
iii. Attacked and burned Jamestown
iv. Bacon suddenly died from disease and the resistance was quelled
v. The rebellion had ignited the smoldering unhappiness of landless former servants, and had pitted the backcountry frontiersmen against the gentry of the plantations.
a. Facts
i. Did not have the disease problem that the southern colonies had because of cool temperatures stopped the spread of microbes and clean water.
ii. Puritans had life expectancy similar to American’s today
b. New England Families
i. Tended to migrate as families instead of individuals
ii. Women typically had babies every two years until menopause
iii. Raising children became a mother’s full time occupation
iv. Had stable family life which contributed to a low premarital pregnancy rate
v. Where as southern women were allowed to inherit property from their husbands, Puritan women gave up their property rights when they married.
vi. If a woman was widowed, they had property rights.
vii. Women’s rights were beginning to develop but they still were not allowed to vote.
viii. A husband’s power over his wife was not absolute, in New England Authorities could and did intervene to restrain abusive spouses
ix. Also, midwifes were primarily women bonded by the common travails of motherhood.
c. Life in New England Town
i. Puritanism was a uniting factor in a community for moral health
ii. New towns were legally chartered by the colonial authorities, and the distribution of land was entrusted to the town fathers called “proprietors.”
iii. When the proprietors received a land grant, from the colonial legislature, they moved to that place with their families and laid out the town
iv. The town consisted of meetinghouse (which served as a place of worship and a town hall), the village green (for the militia to do drills), and each family would receive land (a woodlot for fuel, tract for crop growing, and another tract for pasturing animals).
v. Towns of more than fifty families were required to provide elementary education.
vi. Harvard College was established in 1636 for higher learning
vii. Puritans ran their own churches and Congregational Church government led logically to democracy in political government.
viii. The town meeting, Thomas Jefferson said, was “the best school of political liberty the world ever saw.”
3. Southern Society
a. Social Hierarchy develops
i. The top of the Social Hierarchy system was a small group of powerful planters. They had huge numbers of slaves and land which gave helped them monopolize the regions economy and political power
ii. Before the civil war, 70% of the seats in the House of Burgesses were dominated by families established in Virginia before 1690 (Fitzhugh’s, Lee’s, and Washington’s)
iii. Hard working individuals to solve problems of plantation management.
iv. Beneath them were the small farmers; the largest social group
v. They planted their modest amounts of land, might have had a couple of slaves, but led a hand-to-mouth existence
vi. Under them were the landless whites, most of which were former indentured servants
vii. The lowest class were the black slaves
viii. City growth was not common in the South, the plantations were where southern life revolved.
b. Slavery
i. 400,000 African slaves ended up in North America
ii. Indentured servants supply became low because in the 1680’s, England’s rising wages made more people stay in England. There was now a need for more labor.
iii. In 1698, the Royal African Company lost its charter; Americans, Rhode Islanders specifically rushed to cash in. Supply rose steeply.
iv. African slaves were from the west coast of Africa who had been captured by African Costal tribes.
v. Survivors of the long journey with sometimes as high as a 20% death rate ended up at auction blocks in Rhode Island, Charlestown, and South Carolina
vi. Virginia in 1662 decreed conditions for black slaves. The slave codes made them, and their children, slaves for life. Not even conversion to Christianity could qualify them for freedom.
vii. Slavery began in America for Economic Reasons, at the end of the 17th century; racial discrimination powerfully molded the American slave system.
viii. African slave rebellion’s never matched Bacon’s rebellion.
4. The Half-Way Covenant
a. The half-way covenant was a modified version of the covenant.
b. In this new agreement, the adherents still had to admit to baptism, but not “full communion.”
c. By conferring partial membership rights in the once exclusive Puritan Churches, the half-way covenant weakened the distinction between the elect and others which diluted the spiritual purity of the original settler’s community
5. The Salem Witch Trials
a. Was caused by a group of adolescent girls who claimed to have been bewitched by a certain older woman in 1692
b. Twenty were killed because of the accusations.
c. The superstitions grew from prejudices’ of age, and also unsettled religious conditions of the Massachusetts’s village.
d. Most of the accused women were property-owning women and associated with Salem’s burgeoning economy
e. Ended in 1693 when the governor’s wife was accused and the Governor acquitted everyone.
Chronology
1619 - First Africans arrive in Virginia
1636 - Harvard College founded
1662 - Half-Way Covenant for Congregational membership established
1670 - Virginia assembly disfranchises landless freemen
1676 - Bacon's Rebellion in Virginia
1680's - Mass expansion of slavery in the colonies
1. Life in the Chesapeake Colonies
a. Disease
i. Malaria, Typhoid, and Dysentery
ii. Average life expectancy decreased by 10 years
iii. ½ of the people born in Virginia and Maryland didn’t live to 20
iv. ½ of those didn’t make it to the age of 50
b. Immigrants
i. Most immigrants were single males in their late teens and early twenties that were indentured servants
ii. Most perished soon after arrival
iii. In 1650, Men outnumbered women 6 to 1
iv. Eventually acquired immunities to the diseases
v. Virginia was the number one population, and Maryland was number three in the 18th century
c. Tobacco
i. Intense tobacco cultivation quickly exhausted soil
ii. In the 1630’s, the Chesapeake colonies exported 40 million pounds a year
iii. Indentured servants become the work force that cultivates tobbaco
iv. Indentured servants might get punished by longer terms of servitude
d. Bacon’s Rebellion
i. In 1676, mostly rebel frontiersman under the leadership of Nathaniel Bacon revolted
ii. Disliked Virginia’s Governor William Berkley’s policies towards the Indians
iii. Attacked and burned Jamestown
iv. Bacon suddenly died from disease and the resistance was quelled
v. The rebellion had ignited the smoldering unhappiness of landless former servants, and had pitted the backcountry frontiersmen against the gentry of the plantations.
source
2. Life in the New England Colonies
a. Factsi. Did not have the disease problem that the southern colonies had because of cool temperatures stopped the spread of microbes and clean water.
ii. Puritans had life expectancy similar to American’s today
b. New England Families
i. Tended to migrate as families instead of individuals
ii. Women typically had babies every two years until menopause
iii. Raising children became a mother’s full time occupation
iv. Had stable family life which contributed to a low premarital pregnancy rate
v. Where as southern women were allowed to inherit property from their husbands, Puritan women gave up their property rights when they married.
vi. If a woman was widowed, they had property rights.
vii. Women’s rights were beginning to develop but they still were not allowed to vote.
viii. A husband’s power over his wife was not absolute, in New England Authorities could and did intervene to restrain abusive spouses
ix. Also, midwifes were primarily women bonded by the common travails of motherhood.
c. Life in New England Town
i. Puritanism was a uniting factor in a community for moral health
ii. New towns were legally chartered by the colonial authorities, and the distribution of land was entrusted to the town fathers called “proprietors.”
iii. When the proprietors received a land grant, from the colonial legislature, they moved to that place with their families and laid out the town
iv. The town consisted of meetinghouse (which served as a place of worship and a town hall), the village green (for the militia to do drills), and each family would receive land (a woodlot for fuel, tract for crop growing, and another tract for pasturing animals).
v. Towns of more than fifty families were required to provide elementary education.
vi. Harvard College was established in 1636 for higher learning
vii. Puritans ran their own churches and Congregational Church government led logically to democracy in political government.
viii. The town meeting, Thomas Jefferson said, was “the best school of political liberty the world ever saw.”
3. Southern Society
a. Social Hierarchy developsi. The top of the Social Hierarchy system was a small group of powerful planters. They had huge numbers of slaves and land which gave helped them monopolize the regions economy and political power
ii. Before the civil war, 70% of the seats in the House of Burgesses were dominated by families established in Virginia before 1690 (Fitzhugh’s, Lee’s, and Washington’s)
iii. Hard working individuals to solve problems of plantation management.
iv. Beneath them were the small farmers; the largest social group
v. They planted their modest amounts of land, might have had a couple of slaves, but led a hand-to-mouth existence
vi. Under them were the landless whites, most of which were former indentured servants
vii. The lowest class were the black slaves
viii. City growth was not common in the South, the plantations were where southern life revolved.
b. Slavery
i. 400,000 African slaves ended up in North Americaii. Indentured servants supply became low because in the 1680’s, England’s rising wages made more people stay in England. There was now a need for more labor.
iii. In 1698, the Royal African Company lost its charter; Americans, Rhode Islanders specifically rushed to cash in. Supply rose steeply.
iv. African slaves were from the west coast of Africa who had been captured by African Costal tribes.
v. Survivors of the long journey with sometimes as high as a 20% death rate ended up at auction blocks in Rhode Island, Charlestown, and South Carolina
vi. Virginia in 1662 decreed conditions for black slaves. The slave codes made them, and their children, slaves for life. Not even conversion to Christianity could qualify them for freedom.
vii. Slavery began in America for Economic Reasons, at the end of the 17th century; racial discrimination powerfully molded the American slave system.
viii. African slave rebellion’s never matched Bacon’s rebellion.4. The Half-Way Covenant
a. The half-way covenant was a modified version of the covenant.b. In this new agreement, the adherents still had to admit to baptism, but not “full communion.”
c. By conferring partial membership rights in the once exclusive Puritan Churches, the half-way covenant weakened the distinction between the elect and others which diluted the spiritual purity of the original settler’s community
5. The Salem Witch Trials
a. Was caused by a group of adolescent girls who claimed to have been bewitched by a certain older woman in 1692b. Twenty were killed because of the accusations.
c. The superstitions grew from prejudices’ of age, and also unsettled religious conditions of the Massachusetts’s village.
d. Most of the accused women were property-owning women and associated with Salem’s burgeoning economy
e. Ended in 1693 when the governor’s wife was accused and the Governor acquitted everyone.
Chronology
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